The Book of Arda Viraf is partly mythology and partly Dantesque Divine Calamity written in the Middle Persian language.

Sometimes, during the Sasanians Empire, a Zoroastrian priest was sent to the afterlife to bring news from the heavens and hells

During the reign of the Sasanian King, Ardeshir Papakan, the assembly of Mazdian magi sent a young priest as a messenger to the netherworld to bring back news of the afterlife and what happens after our death. No one expected the visuals to be so shocking when the messenger returned.

The book before you is a revised and illustrated version of the old text. This book also includes several otherworldly stories worldwide, including Mesopotamian Etana, the Egyptian Book of the Dead , Mohammad's Miraj , and Dante's Inferno .

Although there's no fire in a Zoroastrian hell, don't convert yet. The heavens are intellectual delights as the faithful spend time in what they like to do: reading, discussing literature , poetry, art, or just spending time with people or animals they love.

But in hell, there are things worse than fire to maintain social control.

In the Horne introduction to the book, we read:

"So profound, even to this day, is the Parsis' faith in the reality of Viraf's vision that when the work is read in their religious assemblies, the men weep, and the women cry out in horror over its pictures of the damned. It has certainly a powerful influence in restraining the Parsis from sin."